The decision by the Victorian Racing Club to exclude Vigor from the final field for this year's Melbourne Cup may have been technically correct but in reality was weak and against the best interests of Australia's greatest race.
The promising Danny O'Brien trained galloper ended up 25th in order of entry for the 24 horse maximum field but the VRC decided not to use its discretionary powers - which could have elevated Vigor into the field at the expense of lesser-performed runners (and there are no shortage of those) - arguing all those horses above Vigor in the order of entry deserved to start in the race.
Now that may be true based on the official order of entry and qualifying conditions but isn't the Melbourne Cup now an internationally renowned race and this country's showcase race to the world?
The days of the 3200 metre Melbourne Cup being a dour handicap race for battling stayers are long gone with the race having grown classier by the year ever since Irishman Dermott Weld became the first (and only) European based trainer to win the race with Vintage Crop in 1993 - a feat he has since repeated with Media Puzzle in 2002.
The VRC spends countless hours and dollars chasing the best horses in the world to compete in the world's richest handicap races in order to attract the best Melbourne Cup field possible each year yet its decision to exclude Vigor from the Cup field goes against that very same policy.
Surely the race has become so big that ensuring the best possible field should be the highest priority and not rigidly sticking to the order of entry - which is determined by how much weight each horse has been allotted compared to what it would have received under the weight-for-age scale.
This formula itself is flawed in that too much emphasis goes onto past form and not current form, which worked against Vigor this year.
In making the decision not to elevate Vigor into the field through the use of its discretionary powers - the VRC argued that O'Brien chose to skip plenty of races that by winning could have earned his Vigor a start in the Melbourne Cup such as the Geelong Cup, the Bendigo Cup and the weight-for-age MacKinnon Stakes on Derby Day.
Yet Vigor ran a placing in Australia's second greatest handicap race and by far the most important lead-up race to the Melbourne Cup - the Caulfield Cup - yet still cannot get a start at Flemington.
That is because only the winner of the Caulfield Cup is liable for a re-handicap - thus the chance to be pushed further up the ballot order - and not the placegetters.
But given the prestige of the Caulfield Cup and what a great formline it is for the Melbourne Cup why aren't the winner, runner-up and third placegetter as Vigor was this year automatically guaranteed entry to the Melbourne Cup - as is the winner of the 2500 metre Lexus Stakes (formerly the SAAB, Dalgety and Hotham Handicap) on Derby Day.
That is a race far inferior in quality to the Caulfield Cup yet the winner of that race is automatically exempt from being balloted out from the Melbourne Cup while a Caulfield Cup placegetter is not.
Vigor's problem was that when weights were first released at the start of September he had not competed in any major races and so was allotted just 51kg - 8.5kg below the weight-for-age scale for a five-year-old gelding.
And while he won the Group Two Makybe Diva Stakes over 1600 metres at weight-for-age at Flemington after the weights were released and ran third in the Caulfield Cup - only the winners of handicap races can be given more weight and pushed further up the order so Vigor missed out in both instances.
So as a result while a horse that would have legitimately been in the top six chances in Australia's greatest race on Tuesday and would have added much interest to the race is sitting home in his box - at least five horses (and possibly more) that are lengths inferior to Vigor will be running in the race.
These include the horse that should have made way for Vigor in New Zealand seven-year-old Gallions' Reach - which ran fifth in the Bendigo Cup, 13th in the Geelong Cup and last in New Zealand's best race the Kelt Capital Stakes at weight-for-age at his past three runs - as well as fellow Kiwi Spin Around.
Spin Around - which even hardened punters have virtually never heard of - is a nine-year-old who qualified by winning the lightly-regarded Auckland Cup.
Then there is Harris Tweed - a distant 10th in the Cualfield Cup and 14th in the Kelt Capital at his past two starts - plus Ista Kareem, another nine-year-old which may be a Sydney Cup winner (a race which goes downhill in class and prestige by the year) but which ran 12th in one of the most modest Moonee Valley Cups you will ever see at his most recent run.
Even the slightly better performed trio of Zavite, Kibbutz (which hasn't run a place since his VRC Derby win of two years ago) and Capecover don't deserve to be in the race ahead of Vigor.
None of these seven horses has even the slightest chance of running in the top three in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday yet are in the race while a horse that could genuinely have won the race is excluded.
Hardly consistent with the VRC's bid to make the Melbourne Cup one of the world's most greatest races.